This Blog is created to stress the importance of Peace as an environmental directive. “I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell.” – Harry Truman
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Monday, May 19, 2014

Abstract—It is well known (click here) water scarcity and global warming are the two most important concerns of the 21st century. Fresh water resources are limited and while desalination can potentially provide unlimited supply of fresh water produced from infinite oceans, high energy consumption and associated environmental impacts are major drawbacks. This paper presents a practical scheme for providing freshwater by utilizing hydrostatic pressure in conjunction with wave energy. While in a typical seawater reverse osmosis plant,3 to 10 kWh of electric energy is required to produce one cubic meter of freshwater, in the proposed approach, since only the product water needs to be pumped to the surface the specific energy consumption can be reduced to 2.46 kWh...Don't get me wrong, I love solaroil generated steam. But, it may not always apply to all areas of the country.

The drawback of desalination (click here)is the enormous amount of energy it takes to turn saltwater into freshwater. A potential solution has launched in the dry heat of California’s Central Valley, where a pilot project is using solar energy to operate a new kind of desal system.

In San Joaquin Valley’s Panoche water and drainage district, where the experimental solar desalination project is based, the water is brackish—less salty than the ocean but still too salty to be easily used for agriculture. Plants that can handle brackish water, such as pistachios and wheatgrass, dot the landscape, watered by reclaimed runoff. Salts from the soils accumulate every time the water is reused, and eventually the water becomes too salty to be usable.

That’s where the new technology comes in. The salty stuff can now be turned into freshwater by a row of curved mirrors that bend the sun’s rays, focusing it on long tubes containing mineral oil. The heat from the oil generates steam, which separates water from the minerals and salts. Because heat can be held in a thermal storage unit, the system can also run at night or when the sun isn’t shining....

You ready for this? Solar Oil Generated Steam is so incredible even the petroleum industry is using it for it's fracking operations....O'Donnell (click here)says the pilot plant unveiled at a site operated by Berry Petroleum, California's biggest independent oil producer, is intended to provide a rapid test of the system's performance and operating costs. Its 40-meter-long string of mirrors and collectors will provide about one million BTUs of steam per hour....But, more than fracking, the petroleum industry is focusing on the steam used in the production of Canadian Crud, aka Bitumen mixture, coming from solar energy to bring down the CARBON FOOTPRINT of their garbage. Is that sick or what?Talk about a double standard....Spain's Abengoa Solar, which has already built plants supplying solar steam to a California potato chip factory, a federal prison in Colorado, and a groundwater treatment operation in Arizona, says oil fields are a potential market for its industrial steam systems. Stanford University petroleum engineer Tony Kovscek, an expert in heavy oil recovery and an unpaid advisor to GlassPoint, says he is excited by how easy it is to integrate GlassPoint's system with oil fields burning natural gas. "There's a pretty significant carbon footprint associated with these more viscous oils, and GlassPoint has created the potential to reduce that carbon footprint fairly significantly," says Kovscek....I have stated repeatedly, the energy for the future is LOCAL. Local energy cuts down on the inefficiency of transmission lines. So, the beauty of this solar oil generated steam for the bitumen mixture states solar works for the petroleum industry, but, not the American consumer. I don't think so.Ever see that GE commercial where there is a little girl talking about her mom's work? She says "...energy from the moon." Unsure what that is all about? When does the high tide and low tide occur the strongest?...Tides are created (click here)because the Earth and the moon are attracted to each other, just like magnets are attracted to each other. The moon tries to pull at anything on the Earth to bring it closer. But, the Earth is able to hold onto everything except the water. Since the water is always moving, the Earth cannot hold onto it, and the moon is able to pull at it. Each day, there are two high tides and two low tides. The ocean is constantly moving from high tide to low tide, and then back to high tide. There is about 12 hours and 25 minutes between the two high tides....Yeah, that is what that is all about. GE leaving no stone unturned.

...Defence Secretary Philip Hammond (click here) is committed to buying 48 of the jump-jet variants of the aircraft to fly from the Royal Navy’s new Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers from 2018, at an estimated total cost of £4.8 billion.

Until now the F-35’s invisibility – called ‘Very Low Observable’ or VLO stealth – had been achieved through its shape and paintwork, the formula for which is highly classified.

Stealth aircraft use flat surfaces and sharp edges to deflect radar signals and evade detection. The new threat to the F-35 comes from a new system called AESA – Active Electronically Scanned Array – which works by emitting separate radio waves on different frequencies.

By rapidly changing frequencies, the radar is more difficult to fool. China has incorporated AESA into a new radar system which it is fitting to its latest warships. The system is apparently capable of locating a stealth aircraft within 220 miles....And where exactly has American manufacturing outsourced jobs? Overseas? Really?The outsourcing and the hacking occurred under the Bush White House. You'll excuse me and who has a brother that simply loves China more than any other country on Earth?PRI's The WorldReporterMatthew BellMay 19, 2014 · 5:15 PM EDT

The indictment unsealed by the Justice Department on Monday names the men as officers in the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and it details specific allegations of illegal cyber spying against American companies for the benefit of Chinese companies, including state-owned enterprises.

“State actors who engage in economic espionage, even over the Internet from far away places, like offices in Shanghai, will be exposed for their criminal conduct and sought for apprehension and prosecution in an American court of law,” Attorney General Eric Holder said during a news conference announcing the charges.

“Enough is enough,” Holder said. “This case should serve as a wake up call to the seriousness of the ongoing threat.”

James Lewis, a cyber security expert at the Center for International and Strategic Studies in Washington, explained the implications of this very public move by the US Department of Justice....

And what US Secretary of the Treasury spent more time in China than the USA? What USA Secretary of the Treasury is now building wealth management firms in China? What exactly do Americans call national security these days? Treaties and Wall Street? That is national security ? Could have fooled me.

By Lewis Page

4 Sep 2007

Sources in Washington (click here) have indicated that the cyber attack last June which targeted the office of US Defence Secretary Robert Gates was conducted by the Chinese military.

According to a report in the London Financial Times, "senior US officials" and "persons familiar with the event" have briefed that there is a “very high level of confidence...trending towards total certainty” within the Pentagon that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) carried out the June attack. That was seen as a particularly significant event, apparently, as it involved disruption of networks as well as passive snooping....The Indictment included large USA industry leaders. (click here)

I have to wonder how much of American technology was stolen to build manufacturing in China with a cheap labor force? Is the Chinese brain trust able to actually develop the nation without spies and hackers?

Fracking (click here) has done some incredible things for North Dakota: It has the fastest-growing economy and lowest unemployment in the nation, and it is second only to Texas in churning out oil. But as with any gold rush, the boom comes with a human cost for those involved—illness, injury, and fatalities. (For a firsthand view of conditions in North Dakota's fracking fields, watch the video above, which we produced in 2012.)...North Dakota is out of control and costing other industries in the country their incomes and will ultimately cause unemployment, including the car industry.Our national infrastructure has served the country well until North Dakota has caused huge problems including an excessive amount of oil in the market and on the rails.If the rest of the nation was being served by the railroads the way they have always been served by the railroads, North Dakota's oil job boom would be a joke.Gasoline at the pump is as high as it has ever been. The North Dakota oil boom has done nothing to improve the cost at the pump.OSHA is not doing it's job. Why?This is a perfect opportunity to organize around working conditions.North Dakota is out of control and causing hardship to families as well as other industries in the nation. Whey is this going to stop?

The NC Legislators don't receive information from the McCrory Executive Branch they can't disregard the laws of the land? For real. McCrory doesn't have the expertise to advise the Legislature?Gary D. RobertsonAssociated PressMay 16, 2014RALEIGH — A federal trial judge (click here) declined Thursday to side with North Carolina lawmakers who believe they are not required to provide documents to groups seeking answers about how a disputed elections-overhaul law was passed.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Thomas Schroeder upheld the March decision of a magistrate judge who told General Assembly members they didn't have absolute immunity from responding to subpoenas seeking such information....

"Demand has been flat. There has been no real movement," an Indonesia-based trader said.

A Singapore-based trader said he has not seen any drop in thermal coal prices "which is a good thing", adding he had heard Indonesian miners were cutting output to combat low prices but believed it was not a general trend.

The Indonesia-based trader said one of its mines cut production of 4,200 kcal/kg GAR and has not done any deals for the grade recently....

Oil Industry Blamed For Freight Rail Delays

by DAVID SCHAPERMay 19, 20144:57 AM ET

Many grain bins (click here) and silos remain full, long after last fall's harvest because the railroads are behind in shipping. A slowdown in rail service is delaying deliveries of other commodities too.

I TOLD YOU SO!

The petroleum industry in North Dakota overwhelmed the infrastructure. NorthDakota never, not one day, asked for the petroleum industry to be accountablefor it's production in relation to the infrastructure to transport it's product. Now,the petroleum industry is MONOPOLIZING the rail transport industry and everyother commodity is placed on hold, including 'time sensitive' agricultural commodities. The ethanol industry is being closed out of transporting by rail.

In addition to hampering and crippling other industries, the increased danger

of the bitumen mixture has increased the occurrence of very dangerous explosions that cannot be determined to the cause simply because the fire melts and welds all the metal of the transport car into a lump of indistinguishable melt.There is no clear indication as to whether the explosions happened before thederailment or after. There is no clear evidence to point to the fact this petroleumgarbage should even be transported at all. How convenient. When an explosion gets finished with the 'cause' there is no determining the actual volatility in the railcar or pipeline. THAT REASON ALONE. The fact the danger of this petroleum garbage is so indistinguishable to any cause completely indicts the industry. All petroleum product containing naphtha should be barred from transportation until completeunderstanding of it's dangers are known.Oh, the defense of the industry will be, "Those environmentalists simply hateus." Well, there is that, but, now we have evidence as to why we do.

...it is the relationship between single women and their cars.The entire phenomena came to visit me, I didn't go looking for it.

You are welcome to be a part of this observation in your own area.Since Friday of last week I have repeatedly gone to the bayshore to check out the birds and any migration. The bays near us have been slow to spawn large amounts of fish. There may be a profound reason, but primarily because the ice and snow were covering the water so deeply and for an extended amount of time, the bate fish (little fish at the bottom of the food chain) are gone. Basically, they didn't survive the Polar Vortex. That may or may not have anything to do with women and cars, but, this is the issue.While I have been surveying birds, and they are in far less numbers than I had expected. They are in far less species variety than I expected as well. They are primarily shorebirds and they dive for their food. So. There is a correlation between the species and the fish numbers. But, I really expect fishermen to be out on the bay catching dinner or whatever and on a rare occasion they'll actually have their wife or girlfriend. That is not my focus. What I am finding while doing my survey of birds is company. Women. Sitting along the waterfront. Alone. Sipping coffee or Smoothies or simply dangling their feet in the water.During a day of up to three trips to the shoreline at the same place, without solicitation of any kind there is usually one other woman that joins me. They sometimes talk with me or simply sit a distance from me and enjoy the view. They sometimes walk along the shore or sit on the sand to read a book or simply breath the aire. They are peaceful and happy. They appear to be worry free. But, they also have a relationship with their car. They are relying on their cars to sustain their residence. They are primarily young women. Twenty somethings. They are not interested in boyfriends or being accompanied by men. One was an aged woman who still drives. They are rarely minority. They are primarily single, young caucasian women.The USA has a problem. It is a male identity problem.The best way I can illustrate what I am finding is to recall the bar scene in Silver Linings Playbook when Jennifer Lawrence is sitting at the bar before her dance competition and a man offers to buy her a drink. He states he is a lawyer, litigator. Lawrence states, "Oh, the arguing guy." Get over it, because there are beautiful, wholesome, happy women perfectly content to live life without any of you. And they do it from the safety of their car in order to find a way into their own definition of their lives.Men's biggest complaint about women's liberation movement in the 1960s is that women don't need men. It was a hideous ideation to oppress women. Well, guess what? Women don't need men and it is the men's fault.You want to know what occurred with American marriages? It's the men.To quote Jennifer, "You are not a stand up guy."

Three weeks. Three weeks of very light use and the entire system crashed on a brand new HP laptop.OMG.I love XP. Trouble free. Whenever I ran into problems it was usually a computer component of a custom built desktop. When it is used for such varied purposes and for the extent I used it, that was expected. But, this new system is garbage.I don't like "Bing." It attaches itself to more commercial trash than a Brazilian prostitute when the US FBI is in town. I REPEATEDLY inserted "Google" as my front page. Google is clean and neat and I was never attracted to fat women wanting to kiss me.But, "Bing" came back as if PTSD. No matter how many times I cleaned up Chrome, set Google as my home page BING came back over and over.I hate Bing.Right now I hate Microsoft and Bill Gates. I hate everything about the slimeball that robbed the base operating system from HP. I really do.I love internet cafes. I love people and those I meet there that simply open their lives to me without much of an invitation. Bill Gates' 8.1 has interrupted my life and I'll never forgive him.On a scale of 0 to 10 whereby Dick Cheney is 10, right now Bill Gates comes in about 8.1.